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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26971522">You Don't Know Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3'>QuickSilverFox3</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Character Death, Drabble Collection, F/F, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Reality Break, blame the prompts for the amount of character death in this one folks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:55:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>989</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26971522</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicky turned on the radio, and listened to the call to evacuate, the same call that had played for months. He couldn’t leave, he wouldn’t leave. </p>
<p>No 8. WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO? “Don’t Say Goodbye” | Abandoned | Isolation</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache &amp; Booker | Sebastien le Livre &amp; Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani &amp; Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Andy | Andromache of Scythia &amp; Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman &amp; Nile Freeman's Mother</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Don't Know Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The house was empty when Booker woke up (the house was always empty).</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Andy?” he called, voice echoing through the high ceilings and destroyed walls, “Nicky? Joe?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There wasn’t an answer (there was never going to be an answer). He stumbled from his bed, the others lying cold and empty, Andy’s chair lying discarded on its side. Bottles rattled as Booker ran his fingers across them, covered in dust.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They would be back soon. Booker sat on the couch, hearing the springs groan under his weight, the fabric of the other seats gritty with dust. He just had to wait.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Where is everyone?” Nile demanded down her radio, only for her words to be met with static. She thumbed the controls again, straining to hear words in the shapeless hiss.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Sweat stung her eyes, harsh desert sun beating down on her helmet, but she pressed on. Her gun was heavy in her arms, but she didn’t dare lower it. There could be enemies behind any corner, and she was completely along. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyone! Respond!” she barked again, spitting curses and choking back furious tears when silence met her words again.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Nile slipped into the hospital room fifty years after her own death, looking as the same as she did on that fateful day. The curtains were drawn, but the city lights still peeked through, blotting out the stars.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You just missed the others,” Andy said, reclining on her pillows like a throne, grey hair cut short and her face a mess of wrinkles.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’m going to see them after,” Nile whispered, sitting in the chair at Andy’s bedside, “I’m going to miss you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andy laughed, “Don’t say goodbye to me. It’s never been my way.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t,” Nile promised.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Quynh shivered, curled up into a ball in the cargo hold of a fishing trawler. Salt burned her nose with each breath she took, the action strange to her after so long drowning at the bottom of the ocean. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The men were whispering in a language she couldn’t speak, but they were not important. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andromache abandoned her. She took Quynh’s love, her heart, her necklace and promised that they would always be together. And then she left her to drown in a coffin for years.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The blanket burned against her skin, but her thoughts were turned solely to sweet revenge.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“No…”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The word was barely audible, a whispered prayer as fear threatened to stop Joe’s heart. He pressed his hands to the bullet wound in Nicky’s chest, feeling his heart slow and stutter as his blood covered Joe’s hands.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, love,” Nicky whispered, staring up at Joe with such love in his eyes that it threatened to break him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You can’t leave me,” Joe sobbed. Nicky reached up to cup his face, his skin cold.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It won’t be for forever,” Nicky whispered, struggling to speak. “I love you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No!” Joe cried, throwing himself forward as Nicky’s eyes fluttered closed.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Nile slipped into the house, closing the door silently behind her. The alarm code hadn’t changed in fourty years, likely set by one of her cousins following the panic of rushing her mother to hospital. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It still smelt the same. Nile pulled out a chair and sat carefully down, imagining what her life could have been. Her mother was dead, and there was no-one who understood the jagged grief that filled her chest. She had never felt more apart from her immortal counterparts than she did right now, and she longed to speak to her mother, just one more time.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Nicky turned on the radio, and listened to the call to evacuate, the same call that had played for months. He couldn’t leave, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> leave. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He carried none of the wounds that had been inflicted on him, but maybe this time, it would work. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The house was eclipsed by the buildings that had sprung up around it, but Nicky couldn’t, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> leave. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Another war,” Nicky sighed, shifting the soft fabric draped across Joe’s grave marker. It bore the worn imprint of Nicky’s palm on it’s side and he sat next to his love to wait for his final death.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“You can’t keep her.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The girl, stick-thin and soaked through to the bone, curled up into a tighter ball on the couch.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not?” Joe countered, jaw set.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s a child!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Joe threw his hands up in disgust, gesturing for Nicky to take over the argument as he stalked back into the sitting room.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello, little one,” he murmured, sitting deliberately away from her. He watched her, out of the corner of his eye, uncurl a fraction and peer tentatively up at him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello,” she whispered, tucking her hair behind her ear, revealing the handprint bruises all over her arm.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Andromache howled, the first sound she had made in days, the sound crackling and distorting, as she swung her sword, the metal passing clear through the man’s neck as her final opponent fell to the ground. She watched the single cut on her forearm close then sat and waited. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>None of the dead stirred. She was still alone. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Her clothes were matted with blood as she stood and began walking. The sun beat down on her, a single shadow stretching out ahead of her.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She swallowed, and tried to speak, chest heaving with the effort. Only silence. Still all alone.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“You left me!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Andy ducked as the vase shattered on the wall behind her.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” she said, stretching out her hands to Quynh, an attempt at apology and a wordless surrender. The other woman scowled at her, scrambling up onto the bed and yanking the blanket roughly over her head. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“We can get you a baby leash, other boss?” Booker called, laughter laced through every word. “So Andy doesn’t wander off again?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I was looking for you,” Quynh hissed, “For two hours!”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I got distracted,” Andy tried, ignoring the definite sound of popcorn being eaten from the other room.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com"> My Tumblr!</a> Requests are always welcome!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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